"Brother Yang, it's not good." Suddenly, a catcher screamed.

Yang Congyi looked back, only to see the brother standing at the outermost side drawing a knife in his hand, and his back to him in a panic was retreating.

The other people who turned back when they heard the sound also looked nervous in an instant, and they pulled out their knives one after another, turned around, and stared ahead.

Yang Congyi was in front of everyone, talking to the peasant woman, not knowing what was going on behind him, and seeing everyone holding knives in their hands, he was anxious. He quickly stepped forward and rushed out of the crowd to find out.

At first glance, he was terrified.

I saw hundreds of villagers holding wooden sticks, bamboo poles, hoes, sickles, firewood knives, kitchen knives and other things, approaching them quickly and violently, and they were already ten zhang away.

Yang Congyi had never encountered such a formation, and he was overwhelmed with fright for a while, and stood still.

Naturally, there are veterans who have seen the world, and they have experience in dealing with mobs. I heard one person shouting, "Get out of line!" ”

Everyone is extremely nervous, where can they hear whose order it is, when the brain is blank, as long as there is an order, whether it is right or wrong, someone will carry it out.

The crowd quickly lined up behind Yang Congyi, holding knives forward.

The fugitive was not caught, but he had to fight the mob here, and I don't know why. In the face of danger, everyone had no intention of thinking about it, and it was important to repel the mob first and save their lives.

Seeing that the catchers were in good shape and getting ready, the villagers stopped one after another when they were approaching a distance of five or six zhang, and confronted Yang Congyi and the others with weapons in their hands, no longer approaching forward.

The two sides confronted each other, no one said a word, and no one dared to make the first move. Whoever speaks will lose his momentum, and he will suffer a loss when he moves, and no one dares to be careless at the moment of life and death.

It was getting dark, the two sides were motionless, and the whole village was silent, as if it were about to freeze. But the killing intent in each other's eyes is so clear, surging wantonly, a fight, and it is about to break out.

"Mother, I'm hungry." The child's small voice suddenly rang out, and everyone in the confrontation could hear it clearly as the whole village fell into silence in fear of death.

Yang Congyi suddenly came to his senses, hurriedly stepped forward and said loudly, "Don't be afraid, folks, we are not here to collect taxes and grab grain. We came all the way from Taihu County, passing through this place, and went into the mountains to help capture the fugitives. Don't get excited, let's put the guys away. ”

There was a commotion among the villagers, and someone shouted, "Don't believe them. They have been collecting rent month after month, robbing grain and cattle and sheep, and even robbing grain seeds, forcing us to starve to death, and our families are ruined, have you forgotten? We're going to starve to death anyway, and we're going to kill them and give us backs! ”

"Yes, kill them and avenge my father!"

"Kill them ......"

The shouts were better than the waves, and the villagers were excited, vowing to kill all the government minions in front of them and avenge the starvation of the villagers.

The crowd was so frightened by the frantic shouts of the villagers that their hands and feet trembled, and some of them could not hold their knives steadily, and the tips of their knives hung down to the ground. People who have lost their minds and forgot the fear of death because of hatred are not afraid of anything, but can only make others afraid of them, and those who are not afraid of death, what can they do to fight them?

Yang Congyi is afraid of death, he is afraid of death, and he is also afraid of other people's death. The shadow left by the Xiaosongpo bloody case in his heart has not disappeared, if the confrontation in front of him turns into a fight, it will be dozens of times more tragic than Xiaosongpo, no matter who wins, more than 100 villagers will have to die, and the death and injury of his own group of brothers is inevitable, he doesn't want to see such a result.

Yang Congyi raised his voice and shouted loudly, "Everyone be quiet and listen to me." ”

The shouts with an inadvertent inner flavor spread throughout the village. The shouts of the villagers were instantly suppressed, and no one shouted frantically, staring at Yang Congyi.

Yang Congyi was also taken aback by his voice, he didn't expect it to be so loud at all, but he didn't have the heart to think about it. Then he said, "I can understand everyone's feelings. I know your troubles. The government collects taxes and grabs grain every month, which is definitely not right. But now you want to kill the officials and fight against the government, right? Once you are an opponent, everyone will die, and Phoenix Village will disappear from now on, is it worthy of the ancestors and ancestors? You shout and shout to kill, you don't care about your own life, you are not afraid of death, but have you ever thought about the children in your family, you are dead, what will they do? When the grain is gone, it can be replanted, the cattle and sheep are gone, and the people cannot be resurrected after death. Now that the world is peaceful and there is no war, the harvest will get better and better, and everyone can farm well and survive. ”

"No matter how much food is grown, it's not going to be snatched away by you, and we're not starving to death?"

"You just want us to grow food to feed you, and we won't agree to die!"

"That is, all the food you planted has been robbed by you, how can you live?"

"That's right! The officials forced the people to rebel, and if they died, they died, and they died early! ”......

Villagers, you say a word, although the words are tough, the eyes are no longer as fierce as before, and they have lost the momentum of rushing up at any time to fight hard, obviously the words Yang Congyi said had an effect. If a person who does not want to die suddenly thinks of his family, he will start to become life-conscious, less impulsive, and at least leave some time for himself to regret.

Yang Congyi then said, "We are officials who came from Taihu County to assist in the pursuit of fugitives, and we only arrived in the evening, and we don't know what happened here. But one thing I know very well is that the statement that the government forced the people to oppose is not correct. There are many corrupt officials in the world, but no matter how corrupt an official is, he will leave a * life food for the people, and then he can continue to be greedy. Parents are smart people, and parents everywhere will not force the people to oppose them, will there be such a stupid parent official who will personally ruin his future? No. There is only one kind of person who can force the common people not to live, that is, dirty officials and cool officials, these people take advantage of the name of the official lord to snatch food from the mouths of the people, and the culprit should be them! Think about it, when did the officials go to the countryside to see how the harvest of the farmers is, and ask how much grain you have at home? The people who come to collect grain are all small officials, and the officials and masters will not know how much they collect. You have been forced by the little officials, and your life is difficult, and Master Li will definitely not know. Although we are officials in Taihu County, we will not sit idly by when we encounter this kind of thing here, and when we return to Huaining, we will definitely inform Master Li of what those little officials have done, severely punish the little officials, and make your decision. ”

After saying this, seeing that the villagers had calmed down and there was no movement in the crowd, Yang Congyi struck while the iron was hot, turned back to the crowd and said quickly, "Put away the knives." ”

The crowd hesitated, they didn't want to die, they looked at each other, and they didn't dare to put away the knife, because the knife was their reliance.

Yang Congyi saw that no one put away the knife, his expression became extremely serious, and he said sharply, "Put the knife away!" ”

Seeing that Yang Congyi's tone was so stern, someone slowly put the knife away. With the first came a second, and in a short time everyone returned their sabers to their scabbards.

Seeing that they all put away their knives, Yang Congyi said in a loud voice, "Folks, my surname is Yang, what I said must count, and when we go back, I will ask Lord Li to severely punish the little officials." As for today, you are eager to save people, and our Taihu County officials will not mind, which is completely understandable. In the future, I hope that you will not be impulsive and live well. ”

Then he turned to the catchers and ordered, "Keep everything you eat." ”

Everyone even took away their knives, and this order was naturally carried out. The catchers took off their packages one after another, took out the uneaten food and put it on the ground.

Yang Congyi didn't give the villagers time to react, and said quickly to the crowd, "Go." Then he ran to the mountains in the distance.

Seeing that the villagers had no intention of approaching again, the crowd quickly turned around and followed Yang Congyi away. Although I can't bear those foods, what are those steamed bread cakes compared to a life?

Taking advantage of the twilight, everyone walked quickly for half an hour, following the path until they had crossed several mountains and left Phoenix Village far behind, before they dared to go into the woods and stop to rest.

ran all the way in fear, although everyone was very tired, but they had no sleep, just picked up a life, no one dared to close their eyes.

Someone asked in a low voice, "Brother Yang, what should we do next?" ”

Yang Congyi leaned back against the big tree and closed his eyes and replied, "Sleep, I'll talk about it tomorrow." ”

The man said, "How do you sleep on this?" What are they going to do when they come after them? ”

Yang Congyi said, "They escaped with their lives, and it's too late to be grateful, how can they chase us again." ”

Someone wondered, "Gratitude? They almost killed us. ”

Yang Congyi said, "Violent confrontation with the government will not have a good result, as long as they do it today, whether it can hurt us or not, the whole village will suffer." The imperial court can't fight the Jin country, but the chaos can be very powerful. Back then, Fang La entangled hundreds of thousands of people to rebel and confront the government, but it was not quickly quelled, and those involved were either beheaded or exiled, and no one could escape. It's the same with Fenghuang Village, if we just do something with them, we will harm one of their villagers, and maybe we will implicate other villages. Isn't it worth thanking us that twenty-six of us saved hundreds of them? ”

There was humanity in the darkness, "Brother Yang, I don't think what you said is right, maybe in their eyes, everyone is running away, they didn't even lose the guy in their hands when they left, how can they be grateful." Resting here, they caught up in the middle of the night, aren't everyone dead? ”

Yang Congyi said, "Don't scare yourself, what are they chasing after us, they gave them all the food, kill us to eat meat?" Take a step back, even if they want to chase, can they see the way without a torch in this black hole, it's so dark, we can't see them holding torches? ”

Someone chimed in, "Brother Yang is right, it's so dark, chasing us in the middle of the night, aren't you afraid that we will give them a knife halfway?" Sleep, sleep, tired. ”

Another human, "We left their rations to them, and their lives were saved, so what do we eat?" I ran for a few hours, and I couldn't sleep from hunger. ”

Another humanitarian, "It's not enough to save a life, drink water when you're hungry." ”

The man said, "Drink water and fart, and it's gone when you soak in urine, and you're not hungry." ”

"I've got some biscuits here." In the darkness, I don't know who whispered, causing everyone to rush in the direction of the sound.

"You kid is a thief enough, why am I so honest that I didn't think to keep a few." "How many more hurry up and take it out, starve to death." "Hurry up, I'm going to move if I don't take it out again." "Who has the baked cakes, don't fucking hide them anymore." ......

Everyone was in a mess and noisy, and in the darkness they didn't know who said that there were baked cakes, and the villagers who were still worried about chasing them just now had already been thrown out of the clouds in front of the baked cakes.

Yang Congyi saw that they were making a mess, and said, "Don't make any noise, if you have a baked cake, bring it over, and I'll give it to you." ”

The people stopped arguing, anyway, they didn't know who was in their hands, and there was no point in fighting any longer. They all gathered around him following Yang Congyi's voice.

"Brother Yang, for you, it's not much." Someone handed a package to Yang Congyi.

Yang Congyi stretched out his hand to catch it, opened the package and touched it, there were indeed a lot of baked cakes, roughly counted, one per person is definitely not enough, so he said, "There are not many baked cakes, half per person, everyone fills their stomachs first, and then looks for something to eat at dawn." ”

Then Yang Congyi divided the baked cakes one by one to the crowd, so that everyone could fill their stomachs a little, rest for one night, and solve tomorrow's affairs tomorrow.

After everyone ate something, their spirits were all relaxed, and the exhaustion instantly eroded their bodies, and after a while, they snored and fell asleep.

Everyone is afraid of the dark, but once there are more people and each other can hear the sound of other people's sleeping snoring, the darkness is no longer so scary, but will make people feel solid and safe under the cover of darkness because they are in the dark.

Yang Congyi was concerned about the safety of everyone, and he didn't dare to fall asleep easily, so he quietly practiced the Five Dragons Hibernation Method, which he hadn't practiced for a long time. After breathing for a while, he only felt refreshed, his ears and eyes were clear, and he could clearly see everyone lying in the darkness where he couldn't see his fingers, and the loud or small snoring of everyone also came into his ears, but this did not affect his practice.

He has practiced the Five Dragons Hibernation Method for three or four months, and he has rarely practiced it again since his grievances were clarified, and he felt that this secret method was of little use, especially compared with the Taoist exercises that he often practiced, it was simply of no practical use.

In the middle of the night, it was the time to sleep and rest, and it was very inappropriate to practice this secret method while watching and listening, so he had little interest in the secret method that could only be practiced while sleeping like this. If he hadn't slept in the wilderness and cared about the safety of everyone, he wouldn't have remembered that he had learned such a strange secret method.

When Lao Dao taught him this secret method, he was mysterious and secret, and only told him how to practice it, but he didn't say what was the use of practicing this secret method, or Lao Dao told him, but he forgot it himself? In prison, in that kind of living environment, where did he remember a lot, he didn't even remember the old Taoist number, he only knew that it was the ancestor of Wudang Mountain Chen Tuan. Wudang Mountain will not be small, and there must be a lot of Taoist temples on the mountain.

There is one thing that Yang Congyi didn't notice, when he practiced the Five Dragons Hibernation Method in the past, he could only see things in his eyes and listen to sounds in his ears, just as a spectator, he couldn't speak or think. But when he practiced again at this time, he could already watch and listen and think at the same time, and freely control his thinking.

He was unaware of this unconscious change, and perhaps in the silent wilderness, he regarded everything he saw and heard as a dream, and of course there would be thoughts in the dream.

This five dragon dormant method is a kind of sleeping exercise, when you practice it, you will naturally fall asleep, and after falling asleep, you will lose consciousness and cannot think. When practicing this secret method without losing consciousness, it is natural to be able to think. Yang Congyi didn't find the relationship between this, he could see and hear when practicing the secret method, he thought he wasn't asleep, but in fact, his brain was emptied between breathing and breathing, and he had fallen asleep quickly.